Author bio/byline:Jason calls himself a geek often enough, so he felt it was only fitting that he write something useful for Geek.com readers. He’s a digital media geek, having written Faster Smarter Digital Video for Microsoft Press, and a Pocket PC geek as the big chief behind the award-winning Pocket PC Thoughts website, and recently a Smartphone geek, having launched Smartphone Thoughts. Look for a new digital media site to be launched by Jason and his team in 2003.

The Concept of Remote Desktop
The idea behind using Remote Desktop is simple: wherever you are, if you have Internet access, you can work as if you were sitting at your home computer. This isn’t a new idea, but it was given new life with the release of Windows XP Professional.

Previous versions of Windows had the ability to connect to a desktop remotely, but only by going through a Windows NT or Windows 2000 box running Terminal Services. Configuration was complex, the price tag was high, and it only flourished in enterprise environments. Joe Small Business/Home User was out of luck, unless Joe was a very smart guy and had some cash to throw at the licensing fee. I wasn’t that Joe, and as a result never used Terminal Services.

Windows XP changed all that–the Professional version came with a “Terminal Services Lite” client dubbed Remote Desktop Access that was capable of supporting one remote user at a time. It uses the same protocol as Terminal Services: Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP). RDP is a fairly efficient protocol, working relatively well over low-bandwidth scenarios.

Microsoft did a very smart thing by renaming it Remote Desktop, and MS engineers came very close to making it easy to use. I say “close” because, like most Microsoft first efforts, the company has a good idea but failed to extend it enough to make it really easy for people to use. With a little effort, however, you can mold Remote Desktop into a solid solution.

There are a few hurdles to clear when considering using Remote Desktop: finding your computer when inside and outside your local area network, getting connected to your desktop remotely through a firewall, and connecting using a Pocket PC. We’ll tackle each one in this article.

Bandwidth Limitations
One thing that’s important to keep in mind before we begin are the limitations that RDP has when it comes to bandwidth. It’s quite effective in a variety of bandwidth situations, but there’s a realistic threshold that will depend on your patience. I’ve connected via RDP using my Pocket PC over a 30kbps (3.75KBps) GPRS connection, and while it worked, it was too slow for anything but emergency procedures (e.g., looking up a vital bit of info in Outlook or restarting a service on a server). A 56K modem isn’t much better–but there are a few optimizations you can make to get the most out of your limited bandwidth.

Before You Start
By default, Remote Desktop is turned off. This is a smart move on Microsoft’s part because it’s one less security vulnerability to worry about. But before you can reach your desktop remotely, you need to turn this feature on.

Figure 1: Enabling Remote Desktop on the host computer

The following steps apply to Windows XP Professional only:

Click Start > My Computer.

In the left-hand task pane, select View System Information.

Select the Remote tab in the window that pops up.

Check off the box for Allow Users to Connect Remotely to This Computer (Figure 1). You’ll need to have a password on your profile already. If you don’t, you’ll receive a warning prompt.

Click OK to finalize the changes.

That’s it–your computer is now ready to accept Remote Desktop connections. Now it’s a matter of finding it remotely.

Scenario 1: Using Remote Desktop within your network
If you’re within a closed network, connecting to a PC using Remote Desktop is quite simple: on the computer you want to connect to (remember it needs to be running Windows XP Professional), click the Start button, then Run. You’ll see a retro DOS-looking box–this is the command prompt. From the blinking cursor, type ipconfig. You’ll see a list of numbers, one of which is the current IP address of the computer you’re connecting to. Once you have the IP address you have all you need to connect to the desktop.

Making the connection from the computer you’re sitting at, back to the computer you want to connect to, is simple as well:

Click Start > Accessories > System Tools > Remote Desktop Connection.

A window will pop up (Figure 2) prompting you for an address.

In the Computer: field, type in the IP address of the computer you want to connect to. It will likely be a 192.168.x.x number.

Click Connect.

Figure 2: The Remote Desktop Connection window

There are some advanced options you can adjust, but in most cases bandwidth isn’t an issue when you’re on a local network connection, so you can leave them at their defaults.

If you’re using something other than Windows XP on the computer you’re using as the terminal (i.e., the computer you’re using to connect to your main computer), you can still use Remote Desktop. Microsoft has released Remote Desktop clients, free for downloading, for Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows NT 4.0, and Windows 2000.

Scenario 2: Using Remote Desktop outside your network
This is where things get a little more complicated. The procedure for connecting to your desktop remains exactly the same, but the procedure for getting to your desktop requires some thought. This assumes that you have a persistent high-speed connection (cable or DSL)–if you only have dial-up there’s not much point in doing this, although it’s technically possible (but you’d have to have the patience of a monk).

See which scenario most closely matches your set up:

If you’re connected directly to the Internet with your cable or DSL connection without a firewall, do the same ipconfig procedure described above to get your ISP-assigned IP address. Once you have this IP address, connect to that IP as in Scenario 1. You may want to optimize for bandwidth (see below).

If you’re connected directly to the Internet with your cable or DSL connection protected with a software firewall, do the same ipconfig procedure described above to get your ISP-assigned IP address. You’ll need to authorize the remote access through your software firewall, which means the first time you try it you may need to have someone sitting in front of your computer to click the Allow Access button.

If you’re connected directly to the Internet with your cable or DSL connection and you’re behind a hardware firewall, you’ll need to open port 3389. This is the port that Remote Desktop uses by default, but the procedure for opening this port will be different for every firewall. In most cases it will be found in the port forwarding or security settings for your hardware firewall, and there are two settings you’ll need to enter: the external port you’re permanently opening to the outside world (port 3389), and the internal computer IP that you’re going to route that Remote Desktop Protocol to. The internal IP is how your hardware firewall will know which computer you want to access. You find the internal IP by using the ipconfig procedure described above on the PC you want to control.

The above describes the most typical scenarios, but there’s one scenario that needs further explanation.

Multiple PC Remote Desktop
So what happens if you have more than one computer you want to connect to? Microsoft didn’t allow for this scenario for SOHO users; enterprise users will likely use VPN and network authentication to be automatically routed to the appropriate resources, but for everyone else a clever solution is needed.

It’s time to hack the Windows Registry! This is a fairly simple Registry hack, so as long as you follow the instructions closely, there’s little danger of you damaging your system. But, as always, Registry edits should only be done by relatively experienced computer users.

Figure 3: Finding the correct port number registry key to edit

Click Start > Run then type regedit.

This will start the Windows Registry Editor. You’ll need to navigate down through the following directories:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE

SYSTEM

CurrentControlSet

Control

Terminal Server

WinStations

RDP-Tcp

You should see something that looks very much like Figure 3. Double click on the RDP-Tcp registry entry and the key editing menu will appear (Figure 4).

Figure 4: Editing the DWORD value of the port number.

Click the radio box for Decimal Base mode–you can’t enter a number while it’s in Hexadecimal mode. After you make the change, the Value Data field should read 3389. This is the default port–now type a new number, click OK, then reboot the computer. This computer is now ready to accept RDP connections on that port. I typically start at 3389 and go up from there depending on how many computers I want to have access to: 3390, 3391, 3992, etc. There aren’t any reserved ports in this range that I’m aware of, so you should be able to add quite a few computers without a problem.

Remember that when you re-map a computer to listen on a new port, you also need to update the firewall port redirection accordingly. So instead of having port 3389 push to 192.168.X.X (or whatever the internal IP address is), you need to change it to port 3391 and 192.168.X.X (your settings will be different from mine).

When connecting remotely, you need to add the port number after the IP address with a colon. So if your ISP-assigned external IP address is 65.43.X.X, you’ll need to add :3396 after it like this: 65.43.X.X:3396. This might seem like a hassle, but below I’ll show you how to save session settings so you’ll only need to do it once. If you have several computers with custom ports, you may want to keep track of them somehow. I use FlexWallet from TwoPeaks Software on my Pocket PC. This allows me to have all my port data information with me from not only my computers, but the computers of my clients as well.

Figure 5: Adding a custom port number to a Remote Desktop Connection session

Optimizing the Remote Desktop Experience
There are a few things you can do to optimize your connection settings if you’re in a low-bandwidth situation. If you have broadband connections on both ends, I find the default settings work fine–it will be fairly snappy and responsive (though there can be slow-downs if your bandwidth speed drops). The following screens show you the options you have for each session.

Figure 6: Setting the Remote Desktop display properties

In most cases you’ll want to run Remote Desktop in Full Screen mode, which is the default. If the desktop computer has a higher resolution than that of the computer you’re using to make the connection, it will bump the resolution down on the remote device. Full Screen applies to the device you’re using to make the connection. Other options include the color bit depth setting (32-bit color takes more bandwidth than 8-bit color), and whether or not to show the thin yellow line up at the top of the screen that allows you to control the Remote Desktop window (the connection bar).

Figure 7: Controlling local resources

The Local Resources tab is fairly straightforward. The first option is for controlling audio on the remote computer–in most cases, especially if you have limited bandwidth, you’ll want to leave them at the remote computer (the default). If the remote computer is in a place where the audio may disturb others, you may want to change the option to Do Not Play. If you have bandwidth to spare and are using software that requires audio, you can select the Bring To This Computer option.

The Keyboard option should be left on the default of In Full Screen Mode Only, unless you’re not planning on working in full-screen Remote Desktop. The Local Devices options allow you to control which resources you connect to on the remote computer. When you have the Disk Drives option selected it means that on the local computer you’ll have access to the drives on the remote computer. This is handy for moving files between computers–you can move text from one clipboard to another, but if you want to move files, you’ll need to use the copy/paste function from one drive to another. You can’t drag and drop files from a Remote Desktop window to another.

Connecting to a printer allows you to print, and if you have devices connected to the serial port on the remote computer, you can access them by selecting this box first. But what the heck are you doing with serial-based devices anyway? Time to join the next millennium–ditch those serial devices!

There’s a Programs tab that will allow you to start a program on your local computer when you connect. I’m sure there are good reasons for needing this feature, but I have yet to use it myself.

Figure 8: The Experience tab

The final tab, Experience (Figure 8), is perhaps the most important one when it comes to optimizing for bandwidth. If you don’t want to change the settings yourself, simply select the type of connection you have and it will adjust them for you. Always be sure the Bitmap Caching option is selected–everything else is optional.

Saving Session Settings
Since you’re not going to want to configure the settings each time, once you have everything set up the way you want go back to the General tab and select the Save As option. This will create a file that contains all the information you specified. In general, you don’t want to save the password with this file–it’s a serious security risk to embed your password into a file that could be stolen and used elsewhere.

Figure 9: Saving session details

The Pocket PC Connection
The biggest limitation in using the Pocket PC is that the built-in Terminal Services client doesn’t allow you to specify the connection port: it’s 3389 or nothing. This isn’t a problem if you have one PC behind your firewall, but if you have multiple PCs and you want to connect to one the Pocket PC client won’t let you. This is a good example of how Microsoft implements a solution but doesn’t do enough testing outside the Microsoft campus to understand what features other users might need. This remains broken in Windows Mobile 2003 as well.

What’s worse is there’s no ability to select which features you want active–you’ll be pulling down the desktop background, menu animation, etc. Considering the bandwidth limitations of GPRS connections and similarly equipped Pocket PCs, this is a curious omission by Microsoft.

My hope is that in future versions of the Pocket PC Terminal Services client they’ll rename it to “Remote Desktop” and mirror the functionality of the desktop client by supporting user-specified ports and optimizations for low-bandwidth (who really needs to see their desktop wallpaper anyway?).

If you have a single-computer scenario or a unique IP address for each computer, connecting is easy:

On the Pocket PC, first manually establish your network connection. This is automatic if you’re using a Wi-Fi card, and tools like GPRS Monitor from Spb Software House make it easier over GRPS, 1XRTT, or any other protocol.

Click Start > Programs > Terminal Services.

In the window that pops up, enter the IP address of the remote computer you want to connect to. Ensure that the Limit Size of Server Desktop box is checked off. If you don’t check this, it will be difficult to navigate your remote desktop. If you need to use an application, however (like Outlook), you may want to leave this un-checked–many applications will become completely unusable when shrunk to 320 x 240 pixels.

Your connection will begin, and the local authentication window will appear.

Once you’ve connected (see Figure 10) you’ll be able to interact with your desktop (guess who’s face that is on my desktop wallpaper?). A nice feature is that tap and hold becomes your right mouse-click function.

Once you’ve completed your remote control session, you should log off from the remote computer, or go Start > Settings > System > Memory > Running Programs > Terminal Services > Stop. Remember that the “X” doesn’t actually close the application (there’s a long and painful story as to why that is).

RDP through to RDP(7:31pm EST Fri Aug 29 2003)As another idea for multiple computers. If you RDP to one computer on your network, startup the Remote Desktop client on that computer and use it to RDP to another computer on the LAN there. Works great. I typically open RDP to servers and if I need to get to a users’ desktop, RDP from my clien to the server and then from the server to the users’ desktop. Works great and you don’t have to monkey with ports! – by MDF

Great guide (8:52pm EST Fri Aug 29 2003)Awesome guide!!! – by Paul

Multiple Sessions support(10:04pm EST Fri Aug 29 2003)I’ve heard that there is a way to get XP to support multiple RDP sessions?

To best streamline your desktop remoting experience, try Nyditot virtual display 640×480 rotated or 480×640 without rotation. clean up your desktop of every icon and don’t bother with a bitmap (on the remoted system). i even turned off every appearance features so it looks vertually like an NT machine and the taskbar automimizes with all the needed icons on the quick launch. my remoting tasks are quick and painless. just a hassle trying to read websites and emails via remote desktop =) but it does tend to be robust and faster performing than the pocket IE counterpart ) – by Gohtor

Inside there is a snap-in called Remote Desktops. When run there is a explorer window setup. Large window on right and thin on the left. In the left window you can have the machines listed that you want to RD into, and the right pane changes according to the machine you are on. Very Cool Tool! – by op365

Remote desktop alternatives(8:45am EST Tue Sep 02 2003)If you don’t have XP Pro, you can still have remote desktop. IT’s been built into windows since W98. NetMeeting supports a remote desktop server and client that work just fine. To install do start->run->conf then follow the instructions. Once in use tools to setup remote dektop server, then right click on the resulting systray icon then enable remote desktop server.. Use VNC for linux… – by Steve

Alternatives(1:45pm EST Thu Sep 04 2003)I use VNC all the time from my WiFi enabled Palm OS PDA, no big deal on the LAN or over the internet. Yes, encryption is coming soon and there is already a beta for it. But this was a very nice How-To, well done. – by VoiceOfReason

This is not good!(9:41pm EST Tue Sep 09 2003)I lost my all of my files and thank you alot!! – by Not telling!

Not telling!(2:34am EST Fri Sep 12 2003)get a god damn firewall. change the default port to something that is not 3389. learn to backup. dumb***. – by Not telling! is dumb

Win XP behind Win2k Pro(10:15am EST Fri Sep 12 2003)How can I connect to my WinXP box running Remote Desktop from behind my Win2k Pro box that is the gateway to the internet? Is it possible? – by w0065449@selu.edu

Trouble with external remote desktop(12:30pm EST Tue Sep 23 2003)I have been able to work remote desktop through my internal network, but I am having issues on trying to work it from an external location. It has worked when I plug the router directly into a pc, but when we run it through a 16 port switch it does not. I assume that it goes through the switch when it is run internaly. Any ideas on why I am having this problem. Can it be becuase the router and pcs are on 192.168.1.XXX and the switch is on 192.168.11.XXX? All help will be appreciated. – by Trying Hard

Trouble cont….(12:39pm EST Tue Sep 23 2003)Just in case, I have been using my 65.43. address to try and connect from outside – by Trying Hard

—————–Multiple Sessions support (10:04pm EST Fri Aug 29 2003)I’ve heard that there is a way to get XP to support multiple RDP sessions?

Does anyone know how to hack the registry to do this?

– by Al – by Jean Luc

Multiple sessions(6:43pm EST Tue Oct 07 2003)go for the windows server 2003 trial at microsoft’s siteit allows you evaluation use for 180 days – by FireSnake

RE: Multiple sessions(5:32pm EST Fri Oct 10 2003)Does Server 2003 function similar to XP Pro? I am really just a home user with a need to have two connections at the same time, 1 local and 1 remote -or- 2 remote. My wife and I use the Remote Desktop a lot when we are away from home, however, there are times when she is at home using the computer and I am at work and need to access a file from our home computer. She doesn’t like getting kicked off when I log in. We would find it extremely useful if XP Pro supported two users at the same time.

I know that it is possible to set up a Terminal Server using Server 2003, but that is probably too costly for our needs. Is there any possibility that Microsoft will have some sort of “Terminal Server-Lite” for XP Pro and allow either 1 local user and 1 remote user -or- 2 remote users?

I understand that they need to keep their products differentiated in order to encourage people to buy the right product for their needs, but maybe by only supporting two simultaneous users, they will still leave the market wide open for Server 2003.

Thanks! – by Jake

Multiple Users & Slow Internet(9:27pm EST Sat Oct 11 2003)For the people who keep asking how to let two or 3 users all use the one terminal server at the same time, there is software out there that allows this to happen. I user WinConnect Server – you should be able to find it based on the name. They offer a free trial – if you like it then you will need to shell out a little money to keep using it.

Now, I am having a problem with mine, and it may be due to having mutliple computers connecting at the same time or the software, I’m not sure, but I find the internet to be extreamly slow over remote desktop. (Ex. I remotely connect, then try and use internet explorer). It works, it just take 15x longer than it would using the computer I’m remotely connected to. I thought I might be maxing out the bandwidth by having both the remote desktop and the internet being used at once, but it isn’t even taking up 1% of my available network connection. It is however using 100% of my cpu whenever there is a remote connection. – by Tr@v

RE: Multiple Users & Slow Internet(9:29pm EST Sun Oct 12 2003)Tr@v,

I’ve heard of Winconnect, but I think it is just a little too expensive. That’s why I wish Microsoft would either build in two licenses to XP Pro for remote/local use, or maybe they could sell, for an additional $49.99, the option to have two simultaneous users. If they only allowed a total of two simultaneous sessions on each machine, they would not even touch their server market, while appeasing thousands of home users.

This optional license add-on would also solve the single user limitation that plagues the �Smart Display� devices (Mira), but that�s another story. – by Jake

Multiple Sessions(1:29pm EST Tue Oct 14 2003)So what is the verdict? Does a hack exist to allow xp pro to allow simultaneous sessions via remote desktop or do we all need to shell out big $$ to company for this?

multiple sessions(9:21pm EST Tue Oct 14 2003)It must exist, because Winconnect allows multiple users via remote desktop. We just need to figure out how they did it. – by Ike

problem with sound(11:07pm EST Fri Oct 17 2003)My remote pc sound sworks fine when I log into it. When I use remote desktop and use bring to this computer everything is ok. However, when I use remote desktop and change the local resources to “leave at remote computer” I get nothing. Ideas ? – by tom

More problems with Sound(7:05am EST Thu Oct 23 2003)I have the same problem as Tom – In XP when I select “leave at remote computer” on the audio tab the Remote PC loads the RDP audio driver rather than the Default Hardware Diver. None of the main Media Players recognise the RDP Driver. I have managed to make it work by starting the media player first on the local PC before initiating the Remote Desktop – however this kind of defeats the purpose.

Any help would be appreciated. – by Ian

I got winconnect demo version installed(12:00pm EST Sun Oct 26 2003)I have that software but I don’t know what they do to the registry. Anyone interested should check out their website for a demo version. – by steven

multiple users on on XP Pro machine(9:07pm EST Sun Oct 26 2003)maybe you can use this: Multi Desktop () on one of the multiple desktops. Then just VNC into that desktop while a local user is using the desktop.

If anyone knows if this will work, please let us know. – by King Haggard

multidesktop2003 + vnc , not good(10:35am EST Mon Oct 27 2003)virtual desktop has been around for many year. it is totally different from what we are talking about here. plus, in vnc, there is no way you can tell the program to vnc to which screen. – by steven

steven(11:28am EST Mon Oct 27 2003)multidesktop2003 is not a virtual desktop manager but real desktop creator :) . I bought it and I am sure that it creates and runs every desktop as a separate process same as in Linux. I will try VNC on multidesktop2003 to test it. – by RR

Steven(6:42pm EST Mon Oct 27 2003)I think King Haggard was simply making a suggestion that someone could try. No need to jump all over him.

RR — any luck? – by Don Johnson

RR , Don(9:06pm EST Mon Oct 27 2003)Well, not try to jump over anyone. Just want to share my view. I would be very happy if his idea really work.

Multi Desktop 2003 works flawlessly under VNC.VNC shows only the active desktop.You can switch desktops on the remote PC while within VNC. Hotkeys don’t work while in VNC, since I have MD2003 on my local PCand hotkey would switch my local desktops. I was using mouse to switch desktopsthough VNC. Thanks god it is easy in MD2003.

Regardless how you switch desktops on the host (through VNC or locally (with keyboard) desktops are always synchronized. Whatever you see on the monitor of the host that’s what you will see in VNC session.

In my opinion VNC resembles PCanywhere while being less CPU dependent and takes less traffic.It would be really good if VNC support terminal session, similar to Citrix or MS TS

– by RR

Avoiding installing remote desktop(12:05pm EST Thu Nov 06 2003)I’ve heard there is a way to use remote desktop without actually installing the program on the client computer… something about two files, one executable, that you can put in a folder to run it on the client without an actual installation? Anyone know anything about this? We can’t install anything on the computers at school so I’m trying to find a solution to get on my home computer from school. Thanks – by Travis

To: Travis(11:37am EST Fri Nov 07 2003)I don’t know how to do what you want to do with Remote Desktop, but using RealVNC ( (replace the ‘xxx’ with your IP address. It runs a little java applet and displays your desktop in your browser. This method would work from any computer, even if your forgot to bring your client with you on a disk. – by Ramen or Varalse?

To: Travis(11:37am EST Fri Nov 07 2003)I don’t know how to do what you want to do with Remote Desktop, but using RealVNC ( (replace the ‘xxx’ with your IP address. It runs a little java applet and displays your desktop in your browser. This method would work from any computer, even if your forgot to bring your client with you on a disk. – by Ramen or Varalse?

I’ve missed some awesome key features!!!What you can actually do is:A. Created unlimited number of desktops in Multi Desktop 2003.B. Run VNC Server on MAC, UNIX, LINUX, Win98, XP, Win servers 2000/NT/2003 and so on.C. Run VNC Viewer for server PC full screen on different desktops.

What does that give you?Access to unlimited number of remote PCs/Servers of any platform from a single PC.Did I mention every remote PC is shown full screen on your PC and up to 2 hotkeys for any desktop?!!!! – by RR

I’ve missed some awesome key features!!!What you can actually do is:A. Created unlimited number of desktops in Multi Desktop 2003.B. Run VNC Server on MAC, UNIX, LINUX, Win98, XP, Win servers 2000/NT/2003 and so on.C. Run VNC Viewer for server PC full screen on different desktops.

What does that give you?Access to unlimited number of remote PCs/Servers of any platform from a single PC.Did I mention every remote PC is shown full screen on your PC and up to 2 hotkeys for any desktop?!!!! – by RR – by RR

PRINTING PROBLEM(11:38pm EST Wed Dec 17 2003)WHEN I AM LOGGED IN TO REMOTE DESKTOP I CANT PRINT TO MY PRINTER AT HOME – by IVAN

to IVAN(3:21pm EST Thu Dec 18 2003)Of course you can’t :) . VNC does not establish a VPN link to the Host. You need to transfer the file you want to print the host via another way. E-mail, FTP – by RR

copying and pasting(6:32pm EST Sat Jan 03 2004)During a remote session I would like to copy and paste from the remote computer to mine but when I copy from the remote comp. and go onto my comp. the paste option is grayed out. Can anyone help. Thank You. – by lightbugabug

To: lightbugabug(2:32pm EST Wed Jan 07 2004)I had the same problem.If I press CTRL+C a few times not once then it seems to copy/paste just fine from Remote to Local and from Local to Remote PCs.Does it work on your PC?

I must admit that Multi Desktop 2003 with any remote control software is awesome! Even with MS Terminal server or CITRIX!!! – by RR

solution: problem with sound(6:32am EST Thu Jan 08 2004)Found this:To get Server 2003 to play audio at the machine while logged in remotely you have to specify Remote Desktop Connection to leave sound at server, and you have to login to the server with the /console option enabled. You can edit the Remote Desktop Connection short cut to read like this: %SystemRoot%\System32\mstsc.exe /console

Even though the Help and Support says that you can use the /console switch to connect to a Windows 2000 server’s console session (session 0), you can’t?

Mstsc.exe is the Remote Desktop Connection tool.

The Help and Support is incorrect.

You can use the /console switch to connect to the console session of a Windows XP Professional computer.

From: – by Helge

Security tip(7:50pm EST Mon Jan 26 2004)After setting up port forwarding through my router, I configured my software firewall (Norton) to only allow connections on port 3389 that come from the IP block where I work. Of course this won’t do if you want to be able to connect from anywhere, but since I only RDP in from work I’m hoping this reduces the risk of leaving that port open.

Does anyone have any information on how hack-resistant RDP is, assuming one has been smart about security? (i.e., disable the guest account, make sure all active accounts have strong passwords, etc. — all of which you should definitely do anyway but especially if you’re planning on enabling RDP, wouldn’t you say? Perhaps this goes without saying…) – by boredomjockey

is the password clear text?(7:00pm EST Tue Jan 27 2004)I just want to know if the password for remote desktop is encrypted at all or is it clear text that you can see with a packet sniffer? – by danman

mstsc.exe error message?(3:05pm EST Thu Jan 29 2004) I realy hope someone can help me? Whenever I do remote access with Windows XP Pro I get a error message saying (mstsc.exe has encountered errors and will now close. Please try again later.) This error message comes up within 5 minutes of doing remote access and then when the error message comes up it kills the connection. It is so annoying. I know I set it up right cause I have been using remote access for over a year from numerous machines. All of sudden I am getting this error message no one has been able to help me so far. Also I have tried accessing my computer remotely from different machines so its not just one machine it happens from. I have reformatted tons of times and rieninstalled mstsc.exe and used different windows xp pro disk. Please help thanks!!!!!!! – by Tom

problem with sound (9:57pm EST Fri Jan 30 2004)I got the same problem. When I select “leave at remote computer” the Remote PC still loads the RDP audio driver rather than the Default Hardware Diver. I don`t know why?I don`t understand how the solution posted above works. Both computers run WinXp Pro.

Please help me. Thanks– by Park

problem with sound(10:59am EST Thu Feb 05 2004)I got the same sound problem with leaving sound at the remote machine. Am curious whether you have the same on board sound chip I do. I have a gigabyte 7vm400m mb with onboard realtek audio running win xp pro and trying to connect from win xp home. How about you guys? Anyone find a solution to this problem yet? – by skye

mstsc.exe error message?(12:47pm EST Tue Feb 10 2004) Me Tom again, I have a Linksys router and DLINK wireless access point. I have the right port fowrd on my router 3389. Could somehow the wireless access point be causing me trouble staying connected to my session? – by Tom

Password(11:14am EST Mon Feb 16 2004)How do I get RDP to save the password.I check save it but when it loads up there is no password in the box ?

We ron 2000, XP Prp ,Xp home.

– by jeff

Citrix & RDP(2:09pm EST Tue Feb 17 2004)Seems that MS TS client works with CITRIX just fine (with some limitations). Does that mean that Citrix licensed RDP from MS or MS got a license for RDP? Citrix was there before MS TS. Which one is which? BTW is there a “personal” home terminal server? – by RR

No remote Desktop icon in My Communications(2:18pm EST Thu Feb 19 2004)I did n’t see that option at all..I’m on XP PRo – by Kesee

IP Address Question(11:01pm EST Fri Feb 20 2004)My home office computer runs Windows XP and connects to the internet through a firewall router. I have set the router to open port 3389. My client computer is a laptop I use at remote sites. When I set up a VPN connection, it asks for an IP address. Would this be the IP address given to me by my DSL provider when I set up DSL service? If not, how do I determine what IP address to use? – by PhilT

Pocket PC connection failure to Termianl Services(10:43pm EST Sun Feb 22 2004)I am running a 2000 server with Terminal Serivces and can access it remotely from within my network and from outside with a desktop. I can also access it using a Verizon AirCard with my laptop, but when I try to use it with my iPAQ 3975 and the Terminal Services Client the connection times out. A logon windows never appears to authenticate.

The TS Manager on the server shows a ConnectQuery but it never shows a User or Client name. I can bring up my website on the server on my PDA so I know it’s getting through. Any ideas?– by Al

mstsc.exe error message?(2:54am EST Wed Feb 25 2004)Nope I am using a D-Link router. Also, I identified that the PDA works internally on my network when docked in the cradle. In other words can access my works servers only while in the cradle, but not my home server over the Internet – by Al

mstsc.exe error message?(10:06pm EST Thu Feb 26 2004)Ray what does the error message say and which Linksys router do you have? – by Tom

Multiple PCs not working(1:19pm EST Fri Feb 27 2004)I am having trouble using multiple ports on my home network. I have set my router to push the new port to a second PC and changed the registry to listen on the new port as indicated, but I still cannot connect. (I can connect to either machine on 3389, but neither machine on any other port. I can also connect from one machine to the other in a ‘nested’ RDP session. Anyone else have similar problems/solutions? – by Chad

cant work with vnc(10:18am EST Thu Mar 04 2004)VNC does not make a Windows machine into a multi-user server in the same way that Citrix-based software or Windows Terminal Server, for example, does. A single Windows machine can therefore be accessed by multiple users, but if they all connect at the same time they will all see the same desktop! – by kris

Multiple RDPs(11:19am EST Sat Mar 06 2004)Anyone have a copy of the info posted in this thread, the link is no longer good.

” Multiple RDPs (8:50am EST Mon Sep 01 2003) “Al, this may be what you want:

Multiple_PC_RD.html – by PSouth – by Tiffany

Delete History(7:26am EST Wed Mar 17 2004)does anyone know how to delete the pull down history in the remote desktop client, I need to delete my IP address off of there because Im using it at work… Ive tried deleting the remote hidden file within MY DOCUMENTS however the ip address is still there, any help or suggestions would be greatly appriciated – by Xander

XP multiple remote users(8:18am EST Thu Mar 18 2004)It appears that XP service pack 2 will include the abaility to allow multiple remote users without kicking the local user off.

Its in BETA2 right now and should be out soon. – You can download betas off the net to try it if you are brave -)

– by $kullster

Connection problems(10:04pm EST Thu Mar 25 2004)Half the time I try to use remote desktop over the web I get a “cannot find server” or timeout message. The other half of the time it works. I also can’t reconnect after connecting once… It only works for the first seesion. Any idea what’s wrong?– by FreakinRD

Bitmap Cache Failure(1:44pm EST Wed Apr 28 2004)We’ve been going from a tablet PC to control a W2K machine and all worked well for a while. Now we get a “Bitmap Disk Cache Error”. If I uncheck the bitmap cache then the connection times out but a susequent try connectes immediately.

Any ideas on this?Thanks– by Smokey Bear

Problem with sound(10:45am EST Sat May 01 2004)Has anyone been able to get a solution to the problem with leaving sound at the remote machine when using remote desktop. I’m trying to set up a remote computer next to my stereo system, when running Music Match or Windows Media I get no audio driver nstalled. I tried using solutions mention above with no luck – by PP

Just noticed!(6:19pm EST Wed May 12 2004)I just noticed the new product version there. “Multi User Desktop”

I have 7 desktops:1 authenticated with AD Domain Admin.1 with Exchange Admin.5 with my own user.and I run 3DNA 3D Desktop & Aston Shells on two of them. Very cool!

Forgot to add(6:30pm EST Wed May 12 2004)Finaly I found why I need 3.0Ghz P4 at work and Athlon 64 at home.Now I need even more power! -)– by RR

Cannot Connect(11:48pm EST Fri May 14 2004)I have a problem. I have a VPN set up to go to my office from my computer at home.

Even when this is turned off, I cannot seem to get Remote Desktop to work. I can use it to log into the servers at work, but I can’t dial into IT from my laptop on my home network. I get the following error:The client could not connect to the remote computer. Remote connections might nowt be enabled on the computer orthe computer might be too busy to connect new connections.

I turned on Remote enabling, I disabled my firewall (Norton) although that shouldn’t matter, chouldl it? since I’m connecting within the network. I tried putting the IP address in, no go. I use DSL which acts as a server handing out ip addresse. Any help would be much appreciated! – by rottngeek

Remote desktop(9:29am EST Tue May 18 2004)I’ve had some difficulties establishing a connection to my home Pb using RDP. I’ve open the ports (3389) on the router and assigned a atatic IP to the PC that i want to connect to. When I attemp to connect, i get anerror stting that the PC is not responding………….can any one help with this problem? What else do i need to configur – by jedi-knight33

How can I reboot via Remote Desktop?(8:01am EST Mon May 24 2004)I’ve been trying to figure out how I can remotely reboot a system from Remote Desktop. The “restart” seems to be disabled when connected in via RD. – by happy gilmour

black screen(3:45am EST Tue May 25 2004)I’ve experienced problems, when connecting a RD-Session via VPN over a DSL-Link. Instead of the logon picture appears only a black screen, after a while the connection disconnects with an error message about a network problem.The solution for this problem is to deactivate the bitmap caching. Anyone knows the reason for this problem? – by Hoschi

It is strange, suddenly in the middle of a remote desktop session copy&paste is not working anymore. thats really a problem, because i need to reboot the remote PC to get it working again.

Regards,Michael – by iMichael

re: cannot connect(4:56pm EST Thu Jun 03 2004)I was having a similar problem attempting to connect to a terminal server at work from my PC at home (connecting through a Cisco VPN).

This might seem obvious to most, but in order for everything to work properly you have to make sure that your IP address at home is DIFFERENT from any addresses on your work’s IP subnet. Just to be safe make sure your home network is on a completely different subnet.

The server I was trying to connect to at work was on the 192.168.0… subnet, the same as the default subnet used for DHCP by my router. – by limowreck

Rebooting(5:04pm EST Wed Jun 09 2004)to reboot using rdc is quite easy, simply make sure the desktop has the foreground and hold “alt” and hit “f4″ the screen comes up (turnoff,restart,logoff)

However i am having problems using rdc over the internet, i have a cable modem and a linksys router , the pc ip is static, and i know the ip of the cable modem, but neither ip address will allow me to connect, i am thinking i need to setup the port forwarding on the rounter , but i am unfamiliar with that, i know by entering my router ip adress into ie 6 i can modify settings, ive seen the forwarding, but how do i foward port 33whatever to ipmyserver, does anybody have the know how that can break it down for me on how to connect to isp assigned ip adress through my router and to the ip adress of the pc i specify to handle rdc – by AshTray

mstsc/RDP timeout problems – solved, workaround(8:15pm EST Sat Jul 03 2004)Just read about the timeout problem using Terminal Services – I just came across the same, I need my router to dial an ISDN connection before starting mstsc. Did this using the following .vbs script.Enjoy!.- helge

Remote Printing(9:19am EST Fri Jul 09 2004)Want to work from the beach (who doesn’t). Background: I use a specialized software program on the desktop(win xp pro) to send and receive data to U.S. Customs. On occasion I need to print data received from U.S. Customs to a printer connected to the desktop, and all works fine. Problem: During a remote session from my laptop (win xp pro) at the beach, I can remotely run and review the aformentioned program just fine, but once again I need to print – except this time to a printer connected to my laptop at the beach. I know PC Anywhere offers this remote print function, how about remote desktop? – by Russ

This can be done through the Users and Accounts settings on the Control Panel.

select the option for “change the way users log on/off” and you will see the option to disable “Fast User Switching”

Note that this seems to only work for windows to windows RDP connections.

I don’t know why this works though. if anyone knows how this works please let me know – jeffdamato@hotmail.com. i use a linux machine with rdesktop and have to RD to an XP machine and then RD AGAIN to the target XP machine (hooked up to the stereo system) to have the sound driver work properly. – by Jeff

Accessing RDP through a proxy(10:22pm EST Mon Jul 12 2004)Is it possible to install something on the server so that a client can access the remote desktop from a computer that only has internet access through an http proxy?I’ve seen it done on Win2k TS but it is probably using some 3rd party products. I guess the idea is to ‘tunnel’ the connection to a java applet or activexAnyone knows about a product that will do this? – by Bryx

cache or store files on client(2:55pm EST Tue Aug 10 2004)I have terminal services on an NT box and connect to it using Remote Desktop on a windows 2000 machine. My question is…Are files cached or stored on the 2000 PC(client). Can someone check on what I have viewed using the 2000 PC. Is there any kind of log file similar to the Temporary internet files.

Thanks – by pair a noids

cache or store files on client(2:55pm EST Tue Aug 10 2004)I have terminal services on an NT box and connect to it using Remote Desktop on a windows 2000 machine. My question is…Are files cached or stored on the 2000 PC(client). Can someone check on what I have viewed using the 2000 PC. Is there any kind of log file similar to the Temporary internet files.

Thanks – by pair a noids

Problems with DSL(11:19am EST Mon Aug 16 2004)My computer running Remote Desktop is on DSL. I have always been able to connect with dialup. I recently have been attempting to connect to Remote Desktop via DSL but have been unsuccessful until I disabled the sound on the remote computer. Any explanation? – by DaveNap

Delete History(10:16am EST Wed Aug 25 2004)I also would like to know how to clear the history of computers in the list. Anyone? – by ClearHistory

What I need to know is: if I have a software program that I run on an office computer and access it from a home laptop using Remote Desktop, can I print the information I “see” in the RD “window” on the laptop at a printer at home connected to the laptop? In other words, can I print at home what I “see” on the office computer using RD? Please send an e-mail to huskers67@adelphia.net if possible. Thank you in advance. – by dockeydoc

rdp connection problems(11:21pm EST Tue Aug 31 2004)I have used RDP for over a year now from home and now suddenly nothing. The connection just times out. I have a cable modem and a dlink router. None of my 3 computers can connect with rdp anymore. I run XP home and XP pro with wireless and Win 98 directly to the router. Other people can connect but I can not. – by kjh

just found(2:23pm EST Thu Sep 09 2004)I’ve got a copy of Multi user desktop 2004 from my boss for server Rem. Administration. I connect each desktop to a Win2k server using RDP protocol. It’s like heaven for me.Each server is a hotkey press away, like on KVM switch.

I found that it also supports Real VNC but up to version 3.3 and works with 4.0 only in 3.3 compatibility mode. Anyone else found a way to connect to VNC 4.0 with 4.0 encryption? – by GWIA

Do not use a lynsys router for TS.Never tell your admin the same problem more than once.if common sense doesn’t solve the problem… you broke it. – by Phantom0

printing(6:59pm EST Wed Sep 15 2004)Make sure that the PC you are connecting to remotely has the printer driver installed and ready. if using xp pro the printer will show up automatically.

those of you who have ME…bite me get a decent copy of windows. 98 ..ok…2000..ok NT…shoot yurself. – by Phantom0

Multiple users (5:05am EST Mon Sep 20 2004)Ok I have a Windows XP Pro, the problem is that if someone tries to connect with the Remote desktop connection, automaticly the user connected to my computer is kicked out… well not automatically but it say something like “there’s another user connected to this computer, if you continue the user will be logged out”. The ideea is how can I use my computer and the remote connection at the same time, without kicking one user out? – by rbd

IP Question(11:37am EST Mon Oct 18 2004)I have a hardware firewall and the computer I’d like to connect to has an internal ip address.What IP address do I use when I am connecting? If I use the external one then how will my firewall know what computer to connect to? (I only have one pc on the network setup for Remote Desktop)?????????????? – by Confuzed

Re: IP Question(10:23pm EST Fri Oct 22 2004)You must access the configuration page of your firewall, and set it to forward requests on the port you want to use (whatever port you are using on the client software you’re using to connect with), to the computer you want to accept the requests on. You can usually setup a custom port on the firewall, and forward to a different port on the computer – that will be something discussed in the documentation of your firewall. – by MrNerd

Is there a way to limit connections(2:24pm EST Mon Nov 01 2004)I am in a setting where multiple users have to use an xp pro machine. All of the users are logging the same username and pass to log in. The problem I am having is that if someone is already RD’d another user can kick them off by RD’ing into the same computer. Is there anyway I can lock out other users if someone is already RD’d in? – by Milwaukees_Best

Using 1 fast computer instead of buying new computers.(2:57am EST Tue Nov 16 2004)At my house we have several computers and they are getting old. I heard of some people getting one nice computer and remote desktoping into it from the older machines. That way we could buy one nice machine instead of several.

I would just like to know if any of you have tried it. If so how well does it work? Also how many users can connect to one machine without noticing the extra load. – by EJ

Monitor a session(11:16pm EST Sun Dec 12 2004)Is there any way to monitor the RDP session from the local computer? Remote assistance is a little too cumbersom. I would like to use RDP for tech support so that when someone needs help I can just connect to their computer, but then they can’t see what I am doing. Therefore I have to use VNC or pcANywhere. Microsoft came so close to having a good product but the blew it with a few pesky limitations. – by Eddie Stevens

RDP(10:20pm EST Mon Dec 13 2004)To avoid confusion, the type of connection that interests me is “many to one” and in this aspect the win xp RDP installed on an old win millenium machine does work quite well and allows me to connect to to my win xp and use all the progs/desktops on the XP. What doesn’t work is the ability to see the local hard and floppy drives (well in fact it worked once but now doesn’t work anymore)… I would like to know if this is a local machine issue or the server/main computer admin issue.

“Winconnect Server XP” works fine however it does not uninstall cleanly and leaves services running in your server that are hard to track down and erase… (just try searching the registry for “acudata, sheriff, thinsoft, betwin, rdpman” and a bunch of others and you will see what I mean…

Also try this… set up a Guest acount on your win XP, type “control userpasswords2″ in the “run” box and in the window that appears assign the guest account to the remote desktop users group… now sign in remotely with RDP to the guest account (using the same name as the guest account)and you can continue using your xp main account without it shutting down or logging out as the remote session is in another account. – by THUGGER

RDP(10:30pm EST Mon Dec 13 2004)Hmmm I forgot to add… why use RDP ??? well that old millenium machine has only 64meg memory and a hard drive of 1.2 gig yet when its connected to the P4 win xp machine over RDP it fairly flies along like any other P4 XP machine. That millenium also surfs the net at the same speed as the win XP and in fact appears just like an XP machine… so all we really need is a way to connect more old machines and benefit from RDP without having to invest in server 2003 or winconnect server (both are expensive)… any ideas out there how to do multiple RDP connects ? – by THUGGER

RDP(3:59pm EST Tue Dec 14 2004)While the above works for me this could have something to do with the fact that I have in the past installed WinConnect Server XP demo… I know this is a dirty program leaving many services changed, even renamed in the system because it does not uninstall cleanly. Clearly WinConnect “hacks” the MS RDP, I would guess this might be possible for anyone to do with sufficient knowledge, and maybe in a cleaner way than Winconnect does it.We do not use any SP1 or SP2 packs because they screw up our company network so I cannot say if concurrent RDP users works with SP2… hopefully someone will come up with the right (and clean) idea soon coz Win XP is gonna be around for a long time. – by THUGGER

Remote Desktop wont work with wireless(1:44am EST Tue Jan 11 2005)RDP does not work with wireless network. It works with wired networked with same router. Please suggest what wireless setting could be wrong.

I am using DLink 514 wireless router – by Dolby

I use a few older PCs too (2:45pm EST Wed Jan 12 2005)I have a few older PCs too and use them daily with my setup.

My setup is:My main P4 3.2Ghz /1gb Ram Win XPDuron 800Mhz and P3 700Mhz (both Win XP) and P200/Monster 3D/SB AWE32/Win 98 (for older DOS games, which I still play). I run Multi user Desktop PRO () on my P4 PC. The program creates individual desktops and connects each desk to other systems via RDP (to XP) and VNC to Win98 PC. When I need to switch I simply press shortcut keys (ALT+Num7, ALT+Num8, ALT+Num9) to switch between desktops like a KVM switch.Very easy to setup and ZERO maintenance. – by GWIA

Timeout in idle 1 minutes using Remote Desktop(10:17pm EST Wed Jan 12 2005)when using the Remote Desktop in XP, it timeout when it is idle in 1 minutes ?

How can I change it as it is very inconvenience to disconnect quikly ?

THanks – by Aston

Remote Desktop with Wireless.(2:37pm EST Mon Jan 17 2005)I just had this same problem. I think my problem was my router at the office was (ex 192.168.1.101) my wireless router at the remote location was also 192.168.1.10x. I changed the wireless router’s IP address to 192.168.2.101. I think the wireless router having nearly the same digits, it was looking for a remote computer on my local network. By changing it to .2 instead of .1 I removed the confusion, and it picked it up right away. You can e-mail me for further details at gbiernacki@adelphia.net

I set up the two machines so I can see them by IP address from the local network.

Then I tried changing the port for one of the machines and connecting by its local IP : the new port (ie xxx.xxx.x.xx:3390) but I can not connect that way. I am not even attempting to access by external IP at this point.

Any ideas what I may be doing wrong?

Also of note I am on a domain and can access one of the machines by name but not the other. Any domain security settings I should worry about?

– by Matt

“Remote Desktops”(9:57pm EST Wed Jan 19 2005)I guys I am using XP home and want to connect to the console of a machine. The client called “Remote Desktops” allows this, but “Remote Desktop” does not. Any ideas how I can connect to the console? – by bingo

Found the Problem(6:01pm EST Thu Jan 20 2005)Hey I wanted to cancel my question… I found the problem… forgot to poke a hole in windows firewall.

– by Matt

Simultaneous RDP connections to WIndows XP(11:40am EST Wed Jan 26 2005)One feature in the beta release of Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) that isn’t in the final version was the ability to configure XP to support two simultaneous Remote Desktop sessions. I found this feature very useful, given the way I use RDP in my daily tasks, and I was disappointed that it was gone. However, you can re-enable this feature with a simple registry edit.

1. Open Registry Editor (Start, Run, regedit).2. Navigate toHKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\TerminalServer\Licensing Core.3. Create a new REG_DWORD value named EnableConcurrentSessions.4. Set the value to 1.5. Exit the editor.

You’ll then have support for two concurrent RDP sessions.

P.S. I am not the author, I’ve just got this tip from a friend. – by vasko

XP TWEAK / HACK Multiple RDC Sessions(8:33pm EST Wed Jan 26 2005)I wrote an article on how to enable this on Windows XP for free:

I can connect to my PC via RD using the IP of each PC, but when I try to by using the PC name, it won’t work. NetBIOS is installed on all the machines, which is what I initally thought it was. Anyone have suggestions?

t\Terminal Server Client\Default If You still see the IP address in remote desktop–go to the “My Documents” folder and enable the viewing of hidden files under folder options. Then delete the file called Default.rdp in the My Documents folder. – by Drake

Use line in on remote connection(1:40pm EST Sat Feb 26 2005)Sometimes I use the remote desktop connection to view live footage captured directy by the tv card which is installed on the server. The problem is that I can’t get any sound with it. The sound goes in through the line in connector of the sound card on the server machine. Is there a way I could utilise this feature?– by jack720

sound error wav file damaged(3:23am EST Fri Mar 11 2005)when I log on with rdp to remote computer as admin en try to play a sound it works great, but wen I log on as a normal user i get an error dat the wav file is damaged – by rob

RDC & Internet Error Message(6:20pm EST Sun Mar 13 2005)I set up a remote desktop connection so that my wife can access her work desktop from home. After setting it up I get the following error message after closing out of any internet browsers (IE, Netscape, Firefox) whether we used RDC or not when the computer was on. I am running Windows XP SP2, and I have tried completly reformatting the computer. Everything works well until I set up the RDC.

Here is the messageThe instruction at “0x019f25b3″ referenced memory at “0x021423e0″. The memory could not be “read”. Click OK to terminate. – by Bob

shortcut key(1:29am EST Wed Mar 30 2005)Is there a key combination by using which you can switch from one desktop to another ? If using two desktops:1. Your desktop2. Remote connection fullscreen desktop

? – by Mix

problems with remote desktop(5:28am EST Wed Mar 30 2005)hi wonder if any one can help. I have used remote desktop before, but had to do complete reinstall of xp pro and sp2. Now when I try to log in at home to my work computer its logs in but then immediately logs me back out. Can anyone help?ThanksRaj – by raj

locking keyboard and mouse on remote machine(2:56pm EST Wed Mar 30 2005)Is there some way to lock the keyboard and mouse on the remote machine when using remote desktop? – by ee_geek

problems with remote desktop(9:38am EST Thu Mar 31 2005)hi just to let you guys and gals know corrected the problem. Believe it was a know issue with nvidia drivers and remote desktop. Got the lastest drivers and it now seems to be working fine – by raj

PROBLEM WITH RDP(10:52am EST Mon Apr 11 2005)I seem to be having a problem similar to Raj, I can connect from work and it’s all ok for about 30 seconds then it freezes and disconnects. If I try and reconnect I can login but am presented with a black screen. If i logon with the 2nd user it works fine all the time (or so it seems, I’m logged on with that user now). I also have a nvidia gfx card and am now using Windows XP x64. Any ideas?

Nick. – by Nick

RE: RDC & Internet Error Message (2:26pm EST Wed Apr 13 2005)Hey Bob:

It’s your memory dude. Trust me. Download – download the iso and burn it to a cd. Put in computer, restart. It will thoroughly test ALL memory. I betcha it finds bad parts to your memory.– by Ralph

who on your wallpaper?(4:24pm EST Fri Apr 22 2005)That my dear people is the only Actor, I know who can act. Ahhhhh.. can’t u seeby the dawns early light tiz the star of the MOVIE’S, DIEHARD, DIEHARD 2,3,and probably 4. As far as all the other stuff on here I have no idea what everone is talking about, I’m a newbee to computer’s,If I tried any of that on my computer it would probably blow up.TJWITHAY@juno.com – by T.J.

Autologout(2:21pm EST Wed May 04 2005)We provide web access to our product, and as one of the options allow a user to run Remote Desktop through the ActiveX client.

The default behavior seems to be when the user leaves the webpage (with ActiveX Remote Desktop Client), remote desktop leaves them logged in (therefore continuing to hold a limited resource – number of allowed remote connections).

The behavior we want is that if the user closes their web browser or leaves that webpage (clicking back button), we want their remote desktop session to log them out. We want them logged out for 2 reasons 1) we want the startup process to run every time a user logs in 2) we want to free up the session so other users will be able to log in.

How can this be accomplished?– by lego

PRINTING with RDP(5:58pm EST Wed May 04 2005)I have client with a CANON LBP3200 printer connected with USB, so installed correct driver and stuff. Printer entry gets configured at logon but all print functions fail. Any thoughts? – by Bgd

RD in Win98 to Vara(11:14am EST Thu May 05 2005)The only way to access a Win98 machine would be through VNC. Best way. try – by wrenhal

XP TWEAK / HACK Multiple RDC Sessions (8:33pm EST Wed Jan 26 2005)I wrote an article on how to enable this on Windows XP for free:

aul/tech/archives/000064.html – by Zippy – by Jerry

3d desktop in RDP?(11:52pm EST Thu May 19 2005)I read somewhere that RDP drivers do not support any 3D graphics. I think this should explain why RDP session hangs if 3d shell is running.I am using 3D Wonder () as my 3D GUI for Windows when login locally and wanted to use it while RDPing. Did anyone else try 3DWonder of RDP? Would VNC help?– by GWIA

windows media player and RDP(11:55am EST Sat May 21 2005)While connected remotly to my desktop machine I launched the media player andwatched a short video. Much to my surprised it all worked great, audio included. But, when I went back tosit in front of the desktop, the mediaplayer would no longer show the video.The sound work, but not the image. I tried logging out and in again, rebooting,even reinstalling and upgrading the media player. It still works fine overRDP, but not locally. What gives? Anyone else see this or know how to fix it? – by dBeau

RDC from XP Pro to 2003 Server(4:18pm EST Mon May 23 2005)Question. I have two server downstairs, both running 2003. On My desktop I am running XP Pro. When I do an RDC to one box the display is fine, but to the other it is 8-bit only. It used to be fine, but the network people I believe did something (I can’t prove it other than they were the last ones signed on). What could be the problem? – by jdlandry

remote desktop with extended desktop(5:40pm EST Sun May 29 2005)The machine I need to access uses extended desktop. How do I have to set up remote desktop to see both screens of the remote machine – by Sam Hones

Monitor the desktop(10:39am EST Thu Jun 02 2005)A question was posted earlier in the year about making it so remote desktop does not make the destination machines monitor black out, so the user at the remote site can see what you are doing on their computer. I think the remote assistance is too cumbersome as well. Any thoughts? – by Matt Nachtrab

printing problems with RDP(5:20am EST Mon Jun 06 2005)I have a remote computer, with two accounts, one of them has administrator rights and another user rights, when I logon remotely as administrative user I can print to my local printer, but if I logon as the other user. It doesn’t connect my local printer. But I also have another similar computer with two user accounts and there everything works fine. Can’t figure it out what’s wrong. Does anyone have some ideas. – by by Paul

Printing to a USB printer(10:31pm EST Tue Jun 07 2005)Help!! I can connect using RDP but can only print locally to a LPT1 printer, the USB printer does not even show up. Any work around, Thanks – – by Dave

I have not tried it as it is for a PC in another city, and you have to physically be there (turn of terminal services) seems like a reasonable solution. When I do try it, I’ll post results… If someone does so before, please post as well. – by Juanm

Autologon(3:41pm EST Thu Jun 30 2005)Hi. I can’t seem to have my programs in whenever I remote control to my home desktop. Every time I connect to my computer, it starts up everything again as if I’ve restarted the computer. Even when I disconnect from it, it would take about 3-4 minutes to connect again (and no my computer is not slow). I did the mmc steps from the Microsoft site and it still didnt help. Can anyone help me on this? – by Jon

Remote Desktop No audio(11:07pm EST Sun Jul 03 2005)Connectin from XP Home to W2K Server. And get no audio no matter how I set it up. Device man shows audio board but control panel/sounds will not let me select a device. Audio works fine if I log on locally…Any Ideas? – by Dale Ridel

HIGH SPEED CABLE(11:51pm EST Fri Jul 08 2005)IAM TRYING TO USE HIGH SPEED ON MY DELL LAPTOP WINDOWS XP. BUT I AM RECIEVING IP 192.168.255.10 AND CANNOT GET MY LAPTOP TO RELEASE AND RENEW IP WHEN I DO IT SAYS THE ABOVE IP ADDRESS AND TUNNELING . I AM NOT TRYING TO NETWORK JUST TRYING TO GAIN INTERNET ACCESS. MY IP SHOULD READ 68.ETC.. WHEN I HAVE SUCCEEDED CAN YOU PLEASE HELP IT WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SINCERLY, CHRIS U. – by CHRIS U.

Anyone tried that?(9:12pm EST Thu Jul 14 2005)Anyone tried to run a 3D desktop for windows an a remote host over VNC? I use 3D Wonder from – by GWIA

Demo PDA app. using RDP(2:44pm EST Fri Jul 29 2005)We are running a custom application on the PDA (Pocket PC) but would like to show the action on a bigger screen or on our laptop. The application resides on the PDA. Can RDP be used? Any ideas on making this simple?thanks– by Tony C.

session 3(7:46pm EST Thu Aug 04 2005)hello i want connect all time on session 3 if i connect trught terminal server… how can i set “on connect use only session 3″ can you help tnx – by spunki@kid.kibla.org

Remote Desktop not printing(7:29pm EST Sat Aug 06 2005)I enabled printers under local devices in the remote desktop options and installed the printer driver on both the client and host. Anybody have any suggestions

ThankFrank – by Frank Salamone

Remote Desktop not printing again(5:26pm EST Mon Aug 08 2005)I have the same problem has Frank. I checked the local devices printers box and installed the same drivers on client and host. Still can’t print locally. This makes the Remote Desktop kind of useless for my application. I need to print out legal docs and checks (title company) – by Kevin

MS Remote Desktop(3:50am EST Mon Aug 15 2005)I have used Remote Desktop from a remote PC (150 miles away) to start an application on a W2003 server. I have then travelled 150 miles and am now in front of the server. I can see the process in Task Manager, but cannot switch to it.

Does anyone know a way to switch the application from the ‘Remote’ connection to the ‘Current’ login?– by Roel

~~~Remote Desktop- MORE connections~~~(7:26pm EST Thu Aug 18 2005)Hi!

I am using Windows XP Pro with service pack 2. How can i have MORE than 3 concurrent users accessing my computer through Remote Desktop? Basically, how can i make it like Winconnect Server XP??

Right now i can ONLY have 3 conccurent sessions even though i have “Limit Number of Connections” set to 99999. I�ve searched the internet for DAYS maybe even a whole week and all the hacks I�ve seen can only give you three concurrent sessions. It seems like absolutely nobody has been able to get more than three besides the company that makes WinConnect Xp.

There are a few other people that would also like to know. We appreciate the help!!

Multiple Remote Desktop Web Sessions(2:49am EST Sun Sep 04 2005)Is there a way that I can get multiple remote web sessions? Say, I wanted to log into my computer from school, and my roomate wanted to log in from his work or school. Can I configue this for that? I have it set up for multiple in-network connections, but I need multiple web connections – by Andy

IP addresses(11:06am EST Wed Sep 07 2005)Can someone see or know my computer’s IP address from an IM conversation? I know they can from an email, but what about IM? Thanks! – by Ann

It was included with the Beta version of SP2. You can probably do a Google search to find it.

Been using it for about a year now with no problems. – by Craig

Multiple RDP connections(4:07pm EST Fri Sep 09 2005)I found the link for you guys that includes instructions and the beta termserv.dll file:

– by Craig

Not working(7:18pm EST Tue Sep 13 2005)I have a problem connecting from work to home. I know everything works fine at the server end because ove logged on from other places over the net, but when ive tried to log in from work, i get the “The client could not connect to the remote computer” message. Now i thought maybe work was blocking outgoing ports, so ive tried many different ports, some of them i know for sure must be open, but it still doesnt work. And im only having this problem from work, nowhere else. any ideas ? – by James

Not_multiple connections(12:17am EST Mon Sep 19 2005)I would like to use remote desktop for collaboration … I am on the desktop and using my password the other person logs into my machine and we both work on the same document.

Can RDP do that?

Can you please email me the solution if you have one… junk@teleologies.com – by Nick

Remote Desktop Printing(6:40pm EST Mon Sep 19 2005)It appears that only printers that are resident in XP Pro will work for the client to print to his local printer in an RDT session. Manual redirect doesn’t appear to work with USB printers. Are there any fixes to support local printers that aren’t resident in XP Pro? Are there any docs on manual redirection? I would appreciate any info or input.

email me at bob.b@adelphia.net.

Thanks, – by Bob Barbabella

Remote Desktop Printing(10:00am EST Tue Nov 08 2005)I have a user who is using Windows 2000, and connecting remotely. On the print server, their printer is displayed for their connection, and I can see the print jobs waiting to print. Yet, their printer does not print the documents. Yet, when I restart the Print Spooler, the documents then are printing. Does anyone know the reason for this or a solution, as I am not able to always be around for when the user needs to print, to restart the spooler?

Multiple sessions solved without 3rd party software(9:01am EST Sun Nov 13 2005)This solution works I tested it myself requires a bit of simple instruction following as most hacks do.

simple dll replace in safe mode the dll is actually one from a beta version of sp2 which allowed multiple connections for Remote desktop. Took me 5 mins to get this working and it works well. Free and doesn’t require any of those programs that leave background services running on your machine.

Hope this helps everyone – by Topdog

it says theres a password but i havent set up a pass(6:25pm EST Tue Nov 15 2005)why does it say i have a pass and i havent got any do i have to make as a friendly host or sumthin i need answer fast – by sawalha14

Timeout(9:48am EST Wed Nov 16 2005)How do I extend the period before Remote Desktop automatically timeouts because of perceived inactivity? I use an XP pro remote client (at home) to access via a SBS2003 server another XP Pro “local” machine (at work. It’s annoying when it keeps kicking me off whilst I make a cup of tea! – by Stuart

RDT problem during connect(10:35am EST Wed Nov 16 2005)I’m using windows xp x64 at home and would like to connect over VPN to another PC in the office. After connecting i get just a black window without any logon window. I can ping the pc but after half a minute I get the message, that the connection was broken. On the PC which I want to connect to I get an entry in the systemlog: “RDP-Protokollkomponente X.224 hat einen Fehler im Protokollablauf festgestellt und die Clientverbindung getrennt.”

I tried the same using a notebook (windows xp pro) and it works – with the same settings!!!Can anybody help??? – by JFK

damn! Firewall(7:22pm EST Sun May 21 2006)At my university ports only a select few ports are open and 3389 is not one. This causes a problem when trying to remote destop to my home PC when i need to. As security is tight..is it possible too use port 80 as the remote desktop port on the host? Thanks – by ZerD

damn! Firewall(10:12am EST Tue May 23 2006)yes :) – by Bandito

Registry settings to Enable remote desktop(2:55am EST Sat May 27 2006)I want RDP a computer within my network but RDP is disabled on the destination computer. I can Remote into the registry though!What reg settings do I need to change to enable RDP on this client? – by Micko

Video DIsabled on Remote Computer(3:58pm EST Fri Jun 02 2006)STarted using remote desktop on my home computer from the office.. acecessed my home as the remote computer and the office computer as the terminal…

when i got home… the video was disabled on my home (remote) computer. I restarted and this didnt fix the problem. SYstem boots up until the login prompt and the monitor just blanks out after the windows logo… what do i do? – by Gerald

Remote desktop not set but have other user logged on?(10:32pm EST Sun Jun 04 2006)I don’t want remote users to connect to my computer. However, twice I have received a message that states “there’s another user connected to this computer, if you continue the user will be logged out”. I checked my system information and I don’t have remote user access enabled. However, remote assistance was checked (I dechecked it). Is someone trying to hack into my computer? Should I be worried? I am using XP and have a 2Wire portal with firewall. – by Kyle

Mediaplayer through RDP(7:53am EST Tue Jun 06 2006)I connect to my Media Center PC from my laptop through remote desktop and play music through my high fi (Sounds left at local machine). This is over 802.11b so to save bandwidth on my laptop I close remote desktop, but then mediaplayer stops playing. Anyway to stop this happening, would VNC work better? – by Rads

RDP over WLAN(8:35am EST Thu Jun 22 2006)When I run the mstsc and then go out of WLAN, after 2min an Error-Message appears. When I go back to WLAn into 2 min the RDP works agan without any Message. (Thats fine)I need to set the timeout from mstsc to never expire or min 2 hours.Is there any way to do that? – by WolfStone

opening more ports(10:54pm EST Mon Jun 26 2006)it seems to me like the stuff mentioned above about making it so that you can run multiple sessions is pointless. i never changed any registry settings and i have had 4 sessions going at the same time with no problems. (i was busy that day) i would try more, but thats all the computers i got with xp pro – by matt

Does Remote Desktop needs special printer compatibility?(11:27am EST Thu Jul 06 2006)I used to print from Remote desktop to my PC at home, I had a HP Laserjet and I bought a New Brother Laser but it is not printing!!!!Please HELP! – by Norma

remote desktop connection(5:01pm EST Thu Jul 13 2006)As the administrator, I received an error message saying, “i was disconnected because another user connected to the workstation. i know I’m supposed to be able to be connected at the same time as the user, but it kicks me out. What may be the problem? – by RR

Regarding Remote Desk top Connection(5:21am EST Sat Jul 15 2006)Hi

I am jai ganesh. Working as System Administrator.How can i access win98 system Desktop by remote desktop connection from win2003 server. – by Jai ganesh

Can’t see running Service from RDC(9:14pm EST Sat Jul 15 2006)When I connect via RDC, I can’t see a program that I know is running (it’s available from the physical machine it is started as a service). – by sg

wireless pc card for laptop(3:43pm EST Sun Jul 16 2006)i need to know where to get one – by linda moser

How do you turn off your other computer?(11:58pm EST Mon Jul 17 2006)I need to know how to turn off the computer I’m remotely connected to. Any one know how to do this. – by ninerrock1

Remote Connection(10:29am EST Sun Jul 23 2006)i have a remote desktop connection installed on my system using VPNI want to copy files from remote desktop to Local desktop. Please Help me regarding thisThanks in advance– by kannan

Working on Same Session(10:05pm EST Sun Jul 23 2006)Does anyone know how to configure RDC for work same session simultaneously? My friend and I want to write java program on same session. My email id is: kamruzzaman@dhaka.net – by Mohammad Kamruzzaman

Remote Desktop to multiple PCs on LAN(2:13pm EST Mon Jul 24 2006)No trouble with first connection, second PC I changed port to 3390 anad assigned different second port, entered both into my router.

Cmd:“Spy on your prey”shadow.exe 0 /SERVER:servername or ip /V Console session is 0TS/RDP session 1 – nBe careful, dont move the mouse or touch the keyboard after executing, you might have control of the system depending on the group policy setting.

“Take a shot!”mstsc.exe /V:servername or ip /console

Happy hunting!! they are actaully fantastic admin tools, you won’t find many unless you enable remote control thru tsmgr or group policy.

For any question you could ever possibly have and some you havent had yet, rdpwizard@nextworks.com

– by Flmer Eud

Print issues with remote desktop(12:06pm EST Wed Jul 26 2006)i,ve seen alot of these post with the same question, here goes another one. when connected with rdp to the office and i try to print, none of my printers even show up.lexmark 6180-usb. i even loaded the drivers on the server. can someone help me please? sjohnson131@cfl.rr.com – by john

ATTN: Mark Allen(12:41pm EST Thu Jul 27 2006)i would configure your windows firewall to accept the newly assigned ports. also make sure you restart the computer after changing the listening ports in the registry. you should have no problem connecting afterwards – by matt

REMOTE DEXTOP(5:22pm EST Thu Jul 27 2006)I HAVE A HOUSE NETWORK SET UP. i AM ABLE TO USE REMOTE DEXTOP FROM MY DEXTOP TO VIEW CONTENTS OF MY LAPTOP BUT I CANNOT DO THE VISEVERSA. CAN ANYONE HELP ME WITH THIS? – by SAGUN

Not xp Pro(6:16am EST Tue Aug 01 2006)newb ? does the computer i’m trying to connect to NEED to HAVE xp pro or will just xp work? – by stuck

Help(3:54pm EST Tue Aug 01 2006)I have PCanywhere and am able to connect to my host using that but cannot seem to get RDC to work. i wanna use RDC because not all computers have pcanywhere. i have the port 3389 forwarded in my host (dlink 524 router) and i think the port is open (i use trend micro internet security’s built-in firewall). Help – by NotaClue

Re: Cannot Connect(6:17pm EST Fri Aug 04 2006)Long delayed, but I just found the solution to my identical problem. In addition to allowing the RDC service under the firewall, you have to go to Control Panel->System->Remote tab->Allow users to connect remotely to this computer.

Bad UI design by MS. It’s ridiculous that you could enable something somewhere and not have it warn you that it’s still disabled elsewhere.– by Oded

Edit the RDF File(1:10pm EST Fri Aug 11 2006)HAs anyone edited the RDF file. You know that annoying warning when you share drives, is there a way to get rid of that by adding aline to the RDF file?

Also, someone asked earlie, is there a way to get the password into the RDF file? – by LittleBit

im praful(1:50am EST Sat Aug 12 2006)sir/madam i just want to know why we cant use R/Desktop on client computerPraful.kharat@gamil.com– by praful

Stupid question(3:55pm EST Sun Aug 20 2006)I have configured my firewall and have no problem connecting to our corporate server BUT I want to connect to my own computer at the office. I can do this easily within IE but when using RDC I connect directly to the server.

If the address I enter is mail.mycompany.com I connect to our main server my computer at works name is mycompany34 is there a way I can change the addressing so I can connect to my own computer? – by jethro

Remote Desktop Port(11:03pm EST Sun Aug 20 2006)Just my thanks for listing the information about port 3389. That was my problem and now I am up and running. Thanks!! ts – by doubter

operating system(6:14am EST Fri Aug 25 2006)Does anyone know if Windows 2000 or 2003 has to have a activation code to run? I know Windows XP does and I am tired of it. Looking for an operating system that doesn’t require the activation key code.Where would be a good place to purchase the program?Thank you – by Tammy

RDP change codes using USB(2:31pm EST Mon Sep 04 2006)TRying to use a scanner via USB on a thin client. The scanner delivers #1 and RDP changes it to 31 in the term server. Why? #1 OK in thin client and local USB. Do # have a special meaning? – by rolsk

RDP Printing(2:43am EST Fri Sep 08 2006)I am conecting to another to another PC with RDP. The printer and disks are turn on in resource panels. Remote PC have printer HP 6L, my PC have Epson Stylus. I cant print document from navision on my local printer. To solve this I install Epson printer driver on remote PC. Still nothing. Can anyone describe very detail how this with printers realy works. Thanks. Please send me solution on mail dean@lace.hr – by Dean

How to connect via RDC from Win XP to Win98 ?(5:36pm EST Sat Sep 09 2006)I cannot connect from XP to Win 98 ! Is there any software free for this job ?– by ata

RDC 32BIT COLOR ???(1:07am EST Thu Sep 14 2006)Anyone know how to get it to display in 32bit color rather than 24?? – by veeto

Mstsc hangs on disconnect(12:56pm EST Wed Sep 20 2006)The mstsc.exe process hangs after disconnecting from RD session. Had been working fine until yesterday. Use it every day for support and remote access to home system and servers on local lan. Is really annoying to have to kill the process each time I disconnect. Any one have an idea what could be causing the problem? – by Slightly Annoyed

Remote Connection through registry Failed???(2:23am EST Fri Sep 22 2006)I am in LAN and want to connect another computer through registry editing. When i typed in my computer either REGEDIT or REGDT32 in run command and press ok. Then Registry windows is opened. While i connecting another computer from FILE>Connect network Registry. It asks that select computer in a next dialogue box. when i typed computer name which i want to connect to. then it again asks that User Name as well as Password. When I typed that accordingly (Administrator and Password). But it says that: Unable to connect to xxx. Make sure you have permission to administer this computer. (xxx is my remote computer name which i want to connect to). But it works through Remote desktop connecton (by typing MSTSC in run command. and typing computer name, then user name and password). I and confused that why same user name (administrator) and password can work through remote desktop windows and does not work through registry connection.

I know that, binary value should be changed under registry from 1 to 0 in fDenyTSconnection (REG_DWORD) value.

To do so, very first it is needed another computer should be access (connected). But i could not connect. What i should do.

My email ID: nanda@alico.com.np – by nanda@alico.com.np

Mstsc hangs on disconnect (4:09pm EST Thu Sep 28 2006)Slightly Annoyed – I have the same problem. No idea why it happens. Happens on two client PC’s when RD to server. Appears to be something specific to these two clients as other machines do not create the issue. – by Shawn

Mstsc hangs on disconnect(10:31am EST Mon Oct 02 2006)I have continued to try to diagnose this problem with very little success. It also seems to affect some other network sensitive applications but not all. I have been trying to find some correlation between the various apps that seem to be experiencing related problems. If I figure out anything will post it here. BTW, I have managed to fix this once before, but it required reinstalling XP over the top. Wasn’t to bad, but is time consuming and annoying. Really want to track this down and kill it this time. – by Still Annoyed

Printing(11:57am EST Mon Oct 02 2006)Try printing to a file and then when you get to the remote computer later, you can just print it out. – by obuck

Mstsc hangs on disconnect(9:33am EST Fri Oct 06 2006)Still haven’t figured out what caused this problem in the first place but just reapplying SP2 to XP resolved the issue. I also then reapplied all critical updates and the problem is still gone. So anyone else that may be dealing with this issue at least you now have a relatively painless way to resolve it. – by Still Annoyed

TO Bryx: Look at AppGate – very complex tool. It should provide what you find out (applet running mstsc that connect to server over tcp/ip…)

aki

Hi!!

Nice article. Its very helpful. But I have a problem with data transfer speed. I am using Win 7 and Win XP in LAN. I can connect easily following the above steps but I can use only pc, if I try to login/use host my remote pc logs out.

I am looking for something which works real time and at both the PC’s together like logmein, but I am looking for LAN network.

PID

Hy,

i have a xp Workstation (XPSP3) with activ Remotedesktop.
From a xp Laptop i can connect to the Workstation (MS RDP Client 6).

Now i have a old Laptop with w98se (as thinclient)to.
When i connected the workstation with the RDP Client from MS i have only error : timelimit.
I cant connect the workstation with the w98 Laptop – why ??.

With a verry old Terminal Server Client (version 4.0 from 1998)i can connect the workstation from the old Laptop ????. – but only with 256 colors :-(((

All computer are in the same subnet, Network is ok.

what is the reason ?
sorry for my bad english, an thank for your support

Ron

Use Windows Live Mesh (free), or Log Me In (free)
Both are agent based services that connect to the service externally by way of installed agent. When you connect to the web site you can connect immediately, or open the agent on your local box and make the connection as well.

Mariaa

For basic tasks RDP is fine. But for anything more than just connecting for smaller issues, a third-party solution like RHUB is required. http://www.rhubcom.com

http://test Jesus H C

yeah the pic in the background is Mel Gibson

Sean Rimbick

For me Techinline is the best alternative to all expensive products on the market at the moment.
I used to work with Teamviewer is great in what it does but has weird price policy marked by hiding prices. Logmein gained a great reputation but loses in price because not everybody can afford it. Logmein is the best one for professionals but they are cheaper options for home users.VNC products are badly functioning with Windows 7 and Vista.
So that’s why techinline is just like golden mean
hope this might be helpful